Prudence Norton needs control more than air, and she finds it in a public wager that claims the slender widow Madeleine as her own. The assembly room watches as signatures seal their fates, turning legal guardianship into something far more possessive and inescapable.

Madeleine's composed gaze hides fierce loyalty edged with grief, but her yielding body answers every command Prudence issues in the confined carriage afterward. The sealed affidavit lies beside them while the night stretches ahead, thick with the risk of exposure and the weight of an orphaned niece.

The affidavit is signed and the assembly room has already seen it. Prudence tells Madeleine when to be in the carriage.